Stan,
I strongly agree with using the symbolic form for units and prefixes in
writing, as opposed to the spelled out names.
However, I strongly disagree with pronouncing the names of the letters
in those symbols when speaking, as opposed to pronouncing the names.
The practice of pronouncing the letters is what has led to inanities
such as "five em ells", which should be "five milliliters" (5 mL). Do
you give directions to people by telling them to "drive three kay ems
down the road, turn right, then it's only another two hundred ems to the
restaurant"?
"Abercrombie & Fitch" is pronounced as "Abercrombie and Fitch" by most
people, not as "Abercrombie ampersand Fitch".
I end here; my brain aitch zee.
Jim
Stan Jakuba wrote:
I appreciate the praise received for the suggested "metrication
strategy" that said:
Sell units, forget about selling metric. How to sell units? Use them.
When? Now. Where? Everywhere.
In addition, I should like to advise the following: When doing so, use
symbols. Do not write out, nor spell out, metric units and prefixes. For
example, kPa is pronounced k p a just like psi is pronounced p s
i. Do not say or write thirty kilopascals; say thirty k p a , write
30 kPa. (No need to remind me of the press editorial guidelines -
everything can be changed, and they do not apply to discussion groups.)
The rationale for the brevity? Endlessly I hear complains from most
inch-pound people that metric units are too long. Perhaps they are, in
comparison to "rod" or "are," but certainly not to "horsepower" or
"british thermal unit." But that's besides the point. Anti-metrics seem
forgetting that in I-P one adds the names of the powers of ten (10³)
to the units. Few realize that, for example, saying " k p a " is
shorter than saying "thousand p s i." Or that " k m " is pronounced
quicker than "thousand miles."
SI symbols are brief and we Americans love abbreviations and
acronyms. That realization should ease the road to metric. Pat, please
write EJ, not exajoule. We will pronounce it e j and soon others will
learn that energy in e j means a lot of it, like in oil reserves. As
another example, inspired by my earlier e-mail, the same with GW. Let's
use only the symbol, not the word gigawatt, and pronounce it g w .
While on the brevity, let me also re-introduce clarity to the
terminology in the energy-related discussions I just wrote
about elsewhere. I suggested to call the quantity "energy per time" the
"wattage." Energy/time is wattage - the "new" term for what used to be
called power. As said, I had seen it used sporadically in the past.
Stan Jakuba
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
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